Introduction

DeepSeek Harness (DSH) adopts a plugin-based architecture, where everything is a plugin. While using the desktop client, you sometimes need to restart the application to apply changes or clean up state. Manually quitting and restarting can be cumbersome and is not ideal for automation workflows. The dsh-plugin-restart-desktop plugin is designed to address this pain point by providing a quick restart entry in the sidebar.

What It Is

This is a client plugin maintained by StabCut. Its core function is to add a “Restart Desktop” button to the bottom settings row of the DSH Desktop sidebar (to the right of the gear icon). Clicking it triggers an orderly restart by calling the underlying API and displays the corresponding waiting overlay.

Core Features

  1. UI Integration: The button is injected into the bottom settings row of the sidebar, to the right of the gear icon, ensuring it remains visible and is not clipped by UI layering.
  2. Confirmation and Execution: Clicking the button opens a confirmation dialog. After confirmation, it calls the desktopActions.requestRestart() method in the desktop main process (based on Electron relaunch) and displays a “Restarting…” waiting overlay.
  3. Language System Integration: The button text is integrated with the DSH language system. When users switch the language in Settings → General Settings → Language, the button text updates automatically (Chinese / English) and takes effect immediately.
  4. Scope Limitation: This feature applies only to the desktop profile. Under the headless web profile, related calls return { ok: false } and show a friendly error message.

Installation and Activation

This plugin is only applicable to the desktop profile.

  1. Modify the profile’s package.json to add the plugin to dependencies and dsh.profile.bundles:
    // ~/.dsh/profiles/desktop/package.json
    "dependencies": { "dsh-plugin-restart-desktop": "file:F:/path/to/dsh-plugin-restart-desktop" },
    "dsh": { "profile": { "bundles": [ "@deepseek-ai/dsh-base", "@deepseek-ai/dsh-web-app", "dsh-plugin-restart-desktop" ] } }
  1. Go to the profile directory and run the install command:
    pnpm install
  1. Restart DSH Desktop, and the “Restart Desktop” button will appear in the bottom-left settings row.

Typical Use Cases

  • Verify the plugin installation flow: Quickly check whether the environment configuration is correct by following profile registration → pnpm install → restart to enable.
  • Use as a minimal example for custom plugins: Refer to its five-part package structure, the insert patch in cordis.patch.yml, and the dual-side host/client implementation with Typert Remote.

Applicable Scenarios and Notes

  • Dependencies: The plugin depends on peerDependencies, including @deepseek-ai/cordis, @deepseek-ai/dsh-typert-protocol, react, and others.
  • Note: Desktop-only; it returns a failure status under the headless web profile.

Conclusion

The plugin has a single, focused logic, dedicated solely to sidebar restart. For more details, refer to the community catalog page or the GitHub repository.